


Incandescent

by mageswagger



Series: oîstros [3]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Body Worship, Dirty Talk, F/M, Knotting, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Multiple Orgasms, PWP, Pseudoscience, Size Kink, Voice Kink, Xenophilia, is romance a kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 16:38:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13838787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mageswagger/pseuds/mageswagger
Summary: As the blockers begin to fade from the systems of the colonists from the Milky Way, strange effects begin to manifest in the human settlers. The Nexus has called for the Tempest to return to dock, but too late to keep Ryder from finding help from the ship’s resident angara.--“Is…this not a good time, Ryder?” Jaal asked, pulling her mind from her thoughts and forcing her to refocus - but gods, it was difficult.“Sorry,” she apologized, and her voice was almost a sigh - not at all as firm or even as irreverent as it usually was. His scent was there again, at the edge of her senses, and a hyper-focused need to breathe him in overtook any common sense. She stepped close, inhaled slowly and not as subtly as she wanted, and when she smiled it was slow and silly. “Today’s been weird.”“You look dazed, Sara,” Jaal said slowly, the pitch of his voice resonating through her core and sending another thrill of heat through her. “Perhaps you should lay down?”





	Incandescent

**Author's Note:**

> The long awaited part 3: Jaal and Ryder. No, you don't need to read parts 1 and 2 to get this - they're completely unrelated, but I'm a thirsty bitch and reused the same plot 3 different times to satisfy my own desire for Kandros, Evfra, and Jaal smut. Hope you enjoy and if you do, consider leaving a comment and a kudos, and also consider checking out the other two parts of the series.
> 
> (also, maybe consider subscribing - if I get a hankering for more smut with either ship, this is probably the series where it will happen)

“How long has this been going on?” Lexi asked conversationally as she carefully scanned Ryder for any signs of injury or sickness.

“Uh, about…a day?” Sara guessed, rubbing the back of her neck as her gaze focused on a spot above the asari’s head as she dredged through her memory. “It started when I woke up yesterday and hasn’t really faded since.”

“Is it painful?” Lexi followed up, gaze lifting from the scanned to focus on the pathfinder’s face.

At that, Ryder hesitated. “I - well, I don’t know if painful is the right word,” she said slowly. “Sometimes it feels like a cramp - you know, like I’m on my period? But there’s been no bleeding or spotting or anything, and it fades too quickly to be that. Besides, the blockers have only just dissolved, right? So that shouldn’t start up for a few weeks yet anyway.”

“In theory,” Lexi agreed, “But it’s better safe than sorry. I’m going to take a small sample that I’ll run through tests - your body may be having a strange reaction to the loss of your blockers. But, this could just be your bodies attempt at kickstarting your menstrual cycle.”

Ryder groaned and fell back against the bed, tossing an arm over her eyes as she had a small hissy-fit in protest. “This is stupid. Can’t I just go back on the blockers, Lexi? I don’t need this interfering with everything.”

“I’ll put in a request, but I can’t guarantee it will get approved. We don’t know how repeated use of the blockers may impact your body,” Lexi said. “Now, are you going to sit up and stop acting like a child so we can do this?”

“Maybe,” Ryder grumbled, but she sat up despite her lukewarm response and let Lexi impale her with a needle and draw a blood sample for her to analyze. She was sent off back to her room with a bottle of midol and Ryder was more than happy to take Lexi’s tentative advice, stripping out of her more professional dress that she tried to stick with while on duty and changing into and oversized tee shirt that she had taken a pair of scissors to, the neck cut away into a wider, ragged hole to avoid the discomfort of a too-tight collar. She flopped down onto her bed, shirt bunching around her hips, and pulled out a datapad to begin reading where she had last left off in her novel. She was barely three sentences in when she heard a knock at her doors.

“It’s Jaal,” SAM announced.

“Let him in,” Sara said, setting the datapad aside and lifting her gaze to watch as the door slid open and the angara stepped into the room. His starry gaze glanced briefly at the unusual expanse of her legs, but did not linger there before leaping to meet her eyes.

“Ryder,” he greeted, and his voice was a little awkward in a way that she wasn’t entirely used to given the angara’s typical stance on remaining emotionally open. “I heard that you were, ah, not feeling well?”

“Already? Who told you?” she asked, sitting up slightly and giving them hem of her shirt a little tug to avoid flashing him.

“Peebee saw you leaving Dr. T’Perro’s with some medicine,” he explained with some modesty. “I was wondering - well, ah,” he gave an awkward little shuffle. “Well, it is not common for angara to discuss this, so you will have to forgive me. But I thought that perhaps some company could at least distract you from…whatever you are facing.”

A small little surge of warmth wrapped itself around her heart and coiled down underneath her sternum. He had mentioned the angara’s discomfort with sickness before, in passing, and she knew that him coming to see her at all was a significant thing.

“Aw, Jaal. Thanks,” she said sincerely. “I appreciate it. You don’t have to worry though - it’s not a sickness, or a disease, or anything. My body’s just reacting to the deterioration of those blockers Gil was explaining to you the other day, so my stomach is a bit unsteady.”

Jaal visibly relaxed, shoulders falling as tension left his body. “Ah, excellent! That is good to hear, Ryder. I will admit, I was worried that there was something worse going on after what we faced with Ruth Bekker.”

Ah. Now his anxieties made sense. Ryder rose, taking care to watch that she didn’t flash him in the process, and approached him. “No need to worry about that at all. I’m 100% disease free. But really - thank you for caring.”

Jaal smiled, wide and bright, and her heart gave a little twist in her chest as she moved to give him a hug - selfishly wanting to hog one of his famous embraces to herself. Jaal was, of course, more than happy to oblige her. His arms wound around her, strong and secure and keeping her locked into place against his chest as her arms encircled his cowl. He was so wide in comparison to humans and even turians, only outclassed in size by krogan, and Ryder had exactly no experience hugging any krogan to compare him to. She imagined a hug from a krogan would feel about the same as a suplex. This embrace brought her nose to his throat and as she breathed, she was met with sudden burst of Jaal’s scent filling her senses. Jaal always smelled good, always took care of himself and his skin, but something strange happened here. The scent seemed to run through her like a physical sensation, and her eyes drooped slightly as her mouth began to water and that low heat that had been curling like a waiting cramp in her stomach suddenly turned to a heavy rock, pressed low and purposeful in a way that she had not been remotely expecting.

“Jaal, you smell…really good,” she blurted without thinking, brow furrowing as her grip loosened in her confusion.

“Ah, thank you, Ryder,” he said pleasantly, unwinding from her and stepping back with a pleasant little smile. “If you like, I could make you some perfumes? Perhaps something from Havarl - you mentioned last we were there how you liked the way the jungle smelled.”

“You don’t have to do that,” she said automatically, resisting the strange desire to step back into his space and shove her face to his throat to breathe him in again. The scent in her nose was already fading and leaving behind a wash of cold that she despised, as if she were empty.

“It would be my pleasure to make you something, Ryder,” Jaal disagreed. He reached for her, caught her hands in his and lifted them between them. One of his hands was enough to cover both of hers, and together his hands completely enveloped hers in a comforting warmth that helped ease the loss of his scent. “Perhaps some soap instead? I have noticed that your initiative’s bathing supplies are rather lackluster. I find that I never feel truly clean if I do not use something that leaves me smelling fresh. Perhaps the same could be said for you?”

Ryder’s weight shifted from one foot to the other as her mind began to summon images of Jaal under the spray of the shower, naked and covered in suds as he rubbed soap into his compactly muscled form. Her gaze went hazy. “That would be nice,” she breathed.

“You…look as if I have lost you somewhere,” Jaal said, temporarily shattering her fantasy. She blinked rapidly and met his gaze, reading a mix of amusement and concern in his warm eyes. “Is this another effect of the blockers?”

Ryder couldn’t help herself - she blushed, cheeks turning a dark red and giving herself away too easily. “I - probably,” she lied, pulling her hands from his to cross her arms under her breasts, fingers twisting in the well-worn fabric of her shirt. “Sorry, Jaal, my brain just seems to be a bit too easy to distract right now. I probably just need to rest, relax, you know. Let this whole thing pass.”

“Ah, of course. I will return later when you are feeling better,” he agreed without hesitation, offering her one of his gorgeous smiles that always seemed to leave a pleasant little knot of heat in her throat - but today that knot formed much lower, nestling in her stomach alongside the heated rock from before.

“That’s probably for the best,” she agreed. She was acting so weird, and while she had always recognized that there was some instinctive attraction she felt for the angara, she had never had her body completely refuse to play polite. Since when had her body decided to revolt against her so rudely? “I’m gonna try and nap it off. You never know how a few extra hours of snooze-time will do you good.”

_Gods, smite me now. There is nothing that I could have said that was more awkward than that._

To her pleasant surprise, Jaal didn’t seem to care in the slightest that she had the eloquence of a toad. He just smiled that soft smile and gave her a nod, bidding her a pleasant rest before he turned and left her to her cabin. The door slid close and Ryder found herself strangely bereft, inhaling to try and savor the lingering scent of her crew mate, but all too soon the perfume vanished and left her breathing in the familiar smell of her quarters.

“I’m blaming this on the blockers,” she said, staring up at the ceiling and counting backwards from 50 to try and distract her mind and her body from the strange (but not entirely unwanted) fantasies that subtly began vying for her attention.

“Your body’s chemical production is acting strangely,” SAM agreed. “I will continue to monitor the behavior while you rest, Ryder.”

“Thanks, SAM. Hopefully it’ll get better soon. I’d like to be in charge of my own thoughts again, thanks.”

With that Ryder returned to her bed and flopped down inelegantly, landing face-first in a pillow and immediately closing her eyes to try and summon the will to rest without plaguing herself with unnecessary and inappropriate thoughts about Jaal.

The nap that claimed her could only be considered half successful. She rested for several hours, strangely exhausted though she had done very little the day before, and even less so far, and initially her rest was without dream and without distraction. But as her awareness began to rise and she fell somewhere in the in-between of awake and asleep, her mind began to summon up strange dreams and visions. Fields of wheat underneath a purple sky, the twin colors racing against each other deeper and deeper until they met at the horizon. Large, bioluminescent flowers sprouting from the soil and surrounding her in their perfume. Tree roots breaking up through the soil, slithering snake-like on the ground to weave together and create a solid wall of wood.

Then a hand, firm and gentle, slowly dragging up her inner thigh while she docilely parted her legs and lifted up the hem of her shirt. A warm finger finding its treasure somewhere between her thighs, dragging unseen through the sensitive flesh that waited with bated-breath before pressing in deep and sending a small whimper through her.

A mouth, warm and pliant, dragging open kisses across her throat as a cock buried itself deep into her core. Thrusting, slow and steady, hands warm and claiming as they pinned her arms to the dirt beneath them.

She woke with a gasp, body tense and eager for the finish that had been so close in her dream but now felt too far away. Ryder moved without thought, slipping her hand underneath the thin material of her panties to rub quick, determined circles against her surprisingly responsive clit. It took very little effort to get herself off, her fingers very well acquainted with this specific task, but even when her orgasm rushed through her system it felt unsatisfying - like it wasn’t what she had really needed.

“Shit, me too,” she murmured to her pillow, withdrawing her hand with a little and disappointed sigh. When was the Nexus going to start selling sex toys? Better yet, why hadn’t she packed her own?  _Oh, right. Nonessential luggage._

Ryder rolled over and gave another, heavier sigh before finally pushing herself up and disappearing into the bathroom to quickly clean herself off. She ignored the subtle pulsing between her thighs, the soft demand that she try again and do better this time, and assumed that eventually with enough determination on her end the desire would fade and she would get her frustrations out on the battle field with a few well placed omni-blades. That was usually what she did when masturbating didn’t do the trick. She tossed her underwear into the dirty laundry and didn’t bother changing into a fresh pair, not while her body was still stubborn enough to not let the dream drop and her body relax.

“SAM, how long was I asleep?” she asked with a yawn as the door slid shut behind her.

“You were asleep for 9 hours and 17 minutes,” he answered.

Ryder’s body stopped in place, her brows jerking up as she barked out a surprised, “What? 9 hours? SAM, I don’t even sleep like that when I’m _trying_ to sleep, let alone when I nap.”

“Your internal systems registered as normal, so I thought it was best to let you rest,” SAM explained. “However, I am tracking strange increases in your estrogen levels. Your body is producing more than usual. That could explain the persistent arousal that has been keeping you from resting properly.”

Ryder’s face burned with mortification and she groaned before pressing her face to her palms. “Gods, SAM, do me a favor and promise to never talk about my vagina or anything vagina-related ever again unless I’ve got like, a UTI or some shit.”

“Apologies, Ryder. I will keep that in mind. However, I am concerned that this is a direct result of your blockers fading,” SAM continued diligently, tone ever-steady. “It is the only explanation for why your body is behaving irregularly.”

“Lexi should be finished with her diagnostics or whatever-the-fuck soon,” Ryder said. “For now just - ugh - keep tabs on my…stuff,” she motioned vaguely, hand circling the air around her lower body, “and absolutely do not mention it to me unless it’s a problem. Alright?”

“Acknowledged.”

That may have been the most awkward and uncomfortable conversation of her life. Sara rubbed at her eyes with the heel of her palm and made her way back to her bed, setting on the edge before dragging the abandoned data pad back over to her side. Reading would distract her - of that much she was certain.

Except this time she was wrong. She read, and the book was not one of those secret porn books that she kept for a mixture of amusement and sincere interest - it was a fucking tragedy for gods sake - and each passing minute had that persistent throb between her thighs growing stronger and angrier, the familiar slick of arousal coating her skin and wetting the tops of her thighs. She shifted uncomfortably, pressed her legs together and wiggled to try and sate it, but that made it all the worse.

“SAM, any news from Lexi?” she demanded, voice rougher than she’d intended. She cleared her throat to try and fix it.

“Negative, Ryder. You have a message from the Nexus, however. It is marked as urgent.”

“Of course it fucking is,” she grumbled. “They can wait for ten minutes while I get this shit sorted.”

“I think that you may find the message enlightening, Ryder,” SAM insisted - and he very rarely insisted anything. This gave her pause. She exhaled slowly and rose from the bed.

“Fine, fine. I’m assuming this has to do with the blockers? or whatever is going on?” she asked as she stretched out her arms and legs to try and relieve some of the tension that was building there.

If SAM was going to respond, Ryder would never know. There was a knock on the door and Sara gave a heavy, exasperated groan before turning and attending to that. The email could wait. The door slid open and she was met by Jaal, who smiled pleasantly at her.

“Ryder, I hope I am not disturbing you,” he said. “But I brought you some spare soap. I thought that you might benefit more from this than I at the moment.”

Jaal. Ryder’s belly squirmed and folded in on itself into a compact little ball of tension, and her gaze went hazy as she slowly admired the width and strength of his form. She didn’t fully notice the way his nostrils flared, or the subtle darkening of his gaze as he watched her watch him.

“Is…this not a good time, Ryder?” Jaal asked, pulling her mind from her thoughts and forcing her to refocus - but gods, it was difficult.

“Sorry,” she apologized, and her voice was almost a sigh - not at all as firm or even as irreverent as it usually was. His scent was there again, at the edge of her senses, and a hyper-focused need to breathe him in overtook any common sense. She stepped close, inhaled slowly and not as subtly as she wanted, and when she smiled it was slow and silly. “Today’s been weird.”

“You look dazed, Sara,” Jaal said slowly, the pitch of his voice resonating through her core and sending another thrill of heat through her. “Perhaps you should lay down?”

That sobered her slightly. Sara sighed heavily, scrubbing her hand through her hair to pin it back from her face as she averted her gaze and tried to calm herself.  _Stop being weird, gods, you’re so embarrassing._  “Sorry. You’re probably right. I’ve been - well. I don’t know what’s going on, but everything’s been weird since this morning.”

She wasn’t moving away, despite her agreement, and Jaal stepped forward to press a gentle hand between her shoulders ( _gods, his hands were so big!)_ and physically guide her back towards her bed. “It is alright, Ryder. You are allowed to have weird days.”

The warmth of his hand was spreading something through her like wildfire, thick and heavy and coiling around her insides like a snake, relentless in its search for something she didn’t fully understand. She walked, slowly, and let him gently press her down onto her mattress until she was perched on the bed’s edge. He took his hand from her and her body rebelled, a small whimper building in the back of her throat but never quite leaving. He sat the jar of what she realized was his soap on the nightstand and turned his attention back to her. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Hot,” she answered automatically. Her cheeks burned. “I - I suppose that’s the blockers, burning through my system.”

“Why don’t you lay down,” Jaal coaxed. The hand on her shoulder returned, this time gently guiding her back down onto the mattress. Her shirt rode up as she laid back, and her gaze refused to focus on anything but Jaal’s. He kept his hand at her shoulder, firm but gentle. “You should rest, Ryder. You’re in no state to leave your cabin.”

“Is it that obvious?” she asked, voice barely audible in the space between them. She shifted, back arching as she tried to make herself comfortable, and she felt a rush of cool air against her hips and thighs. Jaal’s gaze darted down for an instant and then returned to her face, gaze wide and dark as the skin of his cheeks flushed almost imperceptibly. He moved as if to pull away and Ryder’s heart nearly broke at the idea, and her hand latched out onto his bicep to keep him close.

“Ryder…” Jaal cautioned. His voice was deep, and the way her name sounded on her lips had that thrumming heat pulsing alongside it. “I - you - this is not something either of us are prepared for, darling one.”

He talked as if he knew what was going on with her, which seemed outrageously unfair given that she didn’t even know what she needed. Her body arched again, fingernails biting into his arm like a lifeline as a rush of cool air lapped seductively at the fevered flesh between her thighs. She was hyper aware of her own body, of the way her clit pulsed demandingly, the way her muscles contracted searchingly.

“You’re so sweet, Jaal,” she sighed, lashes fluttering as her eyelids became too heavy to keep up for long. Her hand lifted, cupped his cheek to trace his lip with her thumb. “You’re so pretty, too.”

“You’re unwell,” he reminded her. “Dearest, please - you need to rest.”

“I can’t,” she protested, voice pitching higher as her hand fell away and landed on her thigh. “Jaal, will you help me? Please? It’s getting hard to think straight.”

“You know that I would do anything for you, Ryder, but this is something that should wait until after you rest,” Jaal insisted. His gaze shifted down again as her arm moved, and his breath halted entirely as a small groan reverberated through Sara’s chest. Her fingers had trailed along her thigh of her own accord, searching to satisfy that deep ache in her womb that had only gotten worse with each passing minute. Her fingers had parted herself, spreading her labia as her legs opened further, inviting his gaze to follow the way her delicate fingertip slid down to gingerly tease at her slick and reddened entrance.

“ _Sara_ ,” Jaal gasped, and her whole body shuddered. “Sara, I really shouldn’t…”

“I want you to, Jaal,” she insisted, grip tightening like a lifeline on his arm. “I want you. Just you. You’re so sweet, so strong, I just need you to help me.”

One thin finger sank slowly into her, her body eagerly sucking her in and clenching around the intrusion. Jaal’s gaze was transfixed. She slowly fucked into herself, small baby-shudders running along her spine as her lips parted and her gaze took in every shift in Jaal’s expression. He was so emotive, so vibrant, it was painfully easy to read the stark desire burning in his star-like eyes, the subtle part to his lips as he took in a deep breath, the way his nostrils flared as he inhaled her scent. He wanted her. Possibly just as much as she needed him.

“It wont go away, Jaal,” she groaned as she rolled her hips up into her hand, eyes closing as she began to softly pant. “I’ve been aching since this morning and I can’t make it stop on my own - it just gets worse and worse.”

“SAM, do you know what is effecting Ryder?” Jaal asked, immobile above her, refusing to reach out and touch her.

“The Nexus sent Ryder a message detailing the known reactions human passengers have been having to the loss of the blockers,” SAM answered, and Sara was only half-aware of his words. “Some human bodies are reacting to the lack of blockers by producing a significant increase in estrogen, resulting in a heightened state of arousal and fertility. Director Tann has requested that all ships baring potentially effected colonists return to avoid accidental insemination or diplomatic incidents with the angara.”

“I suppose the message came too late,” Jaal murmured, entranced. He shook his head and steadied himself, forced steel into his words as he said: “Sara, do you trust me to make this decision for you?”

Sara nodded, the sound of her first name sending tingles through her. Her thumb notched against her clit and began to stroke it purposefully, sending small spikes of pleasure through her. Her voice wavered as she responded, “Yes, of course. Always, Jaal.”

“SAM, tell Kallo to set course to the Nexus,” Jaal said, reaching to gently sweep his hand through Ryder’s hair, pushing it back from her sweat-dotted forehead. She arched up, nuzzled against his palm and pressed kisses against the heel of his hand. “Do you know who else may be effected on the Tempest?”

“Lieutenant Harper’s name is on the watch list,” SAM responded.

“Tell Cora to report to Dr. T’Perro immediately,” Jaal said. Ryder took his hand and guided it down her body, pressing it to her throat and down to trace the exposed expanse of her collar. He didn’t resist. “And lock the door.”

“Cora has been alerted to the risk,” SAM said. “Initiating privacy mode.”

“Jaal, please,” Ryder whimpered the moment their discussion ended. She guided his hand down further, curling it over her breast. “It hurts.”

His hand tightened it’s grip on her breast and her eyes nearly rolled back as a violent shudder hit her. The heat between her thighs was unbearable, the knot in her belly twisted up dangerously tight, and part of her was afraid of what would happen when it snapped. She spread her legs further, crooking a knee to hook the edge of her heel against the bed’s edge, and let another finger sink in with the first, her thumb rolling over her clit as her fingers thrust into the wet clutch of her body.

“I will help you, Sara,” Jaal murmured, running a thumb over the raised edge of her nipple and making a heavy exhale push between her lips. “And hopefully you won’t hate me for it after.”

“Oh, Jaal,” she sighed, a dreamy expression overtaking her face as her breath began to come in quick bursts, her fingers crooking searchingly as her thumb flicked her clit. “I could never hate you.”

Jaal’s hand slid down her torso to slip under her shirt and push it up over her body, baring her febrile skin to his wandering gaze. He looked at her with an intensity that made her blood burn and rush south, a small inferno determined to destroy her if she didn’t put it out. He removed his grip on her entirely to tug off his gloves as set them aside before reaching out to ever so carefully graze over her nipple, slow and purposeful. The touch left her trembling, her fingers speeding to try and combat the teasing bursts of sensation he wrought. Jaal seemed to catalogue her responses as he explored, kneading her breast carefully at first, and then harder when she pushed her breast up to him encouragingly.

“I’m close,” she gasped, another finger slipping into place and stretching her open as her hips jerked down, trying to take her fingers further than she could physically reach. Her hips ground down against her hand, her back arching as his hands took up residence at her breasts, plucking and rubbing her nipples to hard little points that were painfully taught. “Jaal - kiss me, please, I want to kiss you.”

There was no attempt to deny her this time, like part of her anticipated. He leaned over her, grip tightening slightly as his mouth locked into place against hers. Relief soared through her chest like a bird flying free before it was overcome by flames, her insides feeling raw and angry as the edge neared closer. Her lips parted with his and her tongue slipped out to lick timidly at the part of his lips. He opened to her as his thumbs rolled over her nipples, his thicker, almost coarsely-textured tongue meetings hers and sweeping across the waiting heat of her mouth. Ryder whimpered and writhed, and as her fingers gave a hard crook and her thumb pressed hard at her clit, the band that had been holding her together snapped apart.

Flames burst across her skin as she cried out, arching up against him as her body froze like she were suspended in time, and when she fell back to the bed it was with a heavy gasp that made her lightheaded. “Jaal,” she gasped, voice awestruck -

And then the tension was back, and her awe turned to a wretched sob as a heavy arousal nearing pain settled back in place where the knot had unravelled. Her thighs shot to clamp together, coming down against Jaal’s thighs instead, as her fingers dug painful grooves into her skin as she dragged her nails across her stomach. “Jaal, it hurts,” she panted against his mouth, making him pull back from her, and that didn’t help matters in the slightest. “Jaal, please - it just hurts when I do it, please, please.”

“Hush, Sara,” Jaal murmured, kissing her pulse as his hands abandoned her breasts and settled at her hips. “I’ll do what I can.”

Wide and watery eyes watched as he kneeled at the edge of the bed, his large palms gripping her thighs and pushing them apart as he situated himself between them. When her hand moved to touch herself again, acting without thought, he swatted it aside and fixed her with a stern look that immediately chastised her. Her hand moved to rest on top of his head, gently stroking along the ridges she found waiting there, and static ran across her palm and up her arm.

When Jaal had promised to take care of her, she had thought perhaps that he would use his hand to get her off. She hadn’t thought that he would lean in close and drag that near-deadly tongue of his along the length of her slit. A high, surprised sound bubbled between her lips - almost a laugh - as her hips jolted, and he let her rock against him as his hands took up sentry at her thighs, keeping her spread apart for him. He curled his tongue around her clit and a tremor took up residence in her thighs, muscles quaking as spasms of sensation jolted through her. Even if her orgasm hadn’t been enough, it still left her body sensitive to every touch. His tongue gave a quick little flick, and then another, before his lips closed around the fat swell of her clit and gave a demanding suck that tore a near-feral cry from her chest. Her body jerked against him, and he did nothing to stop her from grinding down against his mouth.

Then she felt his hand move, the skin on her thigh burning still, as he gently rested the tip of his finger against her flushed hole. Her hips jerked instinctively, trying to coax him into her, but he resisted and instead began to slowly tease her, fingertip tracing her entrance as her body desperately tried to coax him inside of her. The tease of his finger and the heat of his mouth was too much for what little remained of her sanity - she was a babbling mess, praise and curses falling from her lips as her hips writhed and her hands petted across his cowl encouragingly. His tongue slid down, prodded at the silken flesh around her entrance and back up to flick anew at her clit, and ever so slowly his fingertip began pressing into her.

“ _Fuck_!” she cursed, hips jolting to either take him deeper or push him out, she wasn’t entirely certain. His finger, even just the tip, was thicker than she’d realized it would be. Jaal pressed a kiss to her thigh, his dark gaze focusing on hers as she shivered and whined, and his finger sank in deeper, slowly spreading her inch by near-torturous inch.

_If this is just his finger, then what-?_

Another inch, and Ryder’s eyes were rolling back as her body began clenching rhythmically around him, deciding it very much liked the way his finger felt and deciding it wanted all of him. “Please, Jaal, darling, please - I’m so close,” she whined, tensing and shuddering. “Up - press up.”

His hand shifted, turned so that as he obediently curled his finger inside of her the tip brushed against her spongey walls, slow and searching, sinking deeper and deeper until it brushed against that specific point, and Ryder cried out and thrust her hips down to force him to press more directly against the bundle of nerves. “ _There, right there!_ ” she gasped, wiggling and whining as her fingers curled in the bedsheets.

Nothing else needed to be said - Jaal touched her with renewed dedication, fingertip circling and prodding at her g-spot in just the right way, and within moments that impossible tension that had come to be nearly a part of her identity twisted up and snapped, unleashing a wash of sheer ecstasy that had her crying out his name like a broken prayer. She couldn’t stop the tears that blotted at the corners of her eyes, born of an arousal too intense for her to handle.

Yet even in her pleasure, as his finger withdrew her body protested the loss, tried uselessly to keep him in place, and she couldn’t help the small and delicate whine that escaped her. Jaal did not completely withdraw - he remained diligently knelt between her thighs, gaze on hers and reading every shift in her expression. Her body slowly relaxed, even as the tension in her stomach remained, and she reached out for him. It was then he moved, raising to his feet and letting her wind her arms around him in a lazy embrace, her face pressing against the crook of his neck.

“Had I known you were so good at that I might have invited you here sooner,” she breathed, instinct demanding she make a joke. Jaal chuckled, and she could feel the vibration roll through her. Her mind was here, a bit more solid than it had been before, and her heart gave a heavy twist as she remembered his reluctance. She tightened her grip on him, body giving a small shiver as the cool air of her room worked fruitlessly to try and calm her body.

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, Jaal,” she finally breathed, closing her eyes and hating that she offered but knowing she had to. She could live with the lack - it would fade, like everything else did, and then she wouldn’t have to worry about putting any more strain on Jaal.

“Sara, believe me when I say that there is nothing in this galaxy that I desire more than I desire you,” he responded, voice a low purr that seemed connected directly to her clit if the way her body contracted had anything to say about it. “But to have you when you are not fully here is not what I had wanted. When we came together, I wanted it to be just us.”

His hand shifted to gently catch her cheek and pull her from him, forcing their eyes to meet, and while Ryder would admit to being hopelessly enamored with Jaal, now it felt like something so much deeper than that.

“Jaal, there’s no one else I would want with me right now than you,” she admitted. She was awful at feelings, at emotions, and more often than not they made her want to run in the other direction to avoid any sort of emotional vulnerability, but Jaal was being so open with her, it felt cruel to do that now, and there was nothing she wanted less than to hurt him. She kissed his palm, met his gaze with as much sincerity as she could muster. “You know I adore you.”

Jaal pressed close and rested his forehead to hers, one large hand curling at the nape of her neck to cradle her against him as he gave a slow, contented sigh. Ryder’s brain went hazy at the proximity and her eyes closed to allow herself to bask in the physical, in the gentle swipe of his thumb against her throat, the sweet smell of his skin as it ghosted across her skin. The angry need in her stomach was still there, in the back of her mind, but she stubbornly ignored it to allow herself this moment - to selfishly hoard Jaal’s tenderness all to herself. Her hands lifted, one resting at his cheek while the other rested above the point on his chest where his heartbeat could be felt the strongest.

“I had made plans to woo you,” Jaal admitted. “I was going to take you to the most beautiful place I could think of, where it could be just you and I, and I was going to shower you in every physical delight I could possibly find in your body.”

“Don’t throw that plan out just yet,” Ryder said, voice low and lusty as a full body shiver rolled through her. Her mind was summoning forth a litany of images that she couldn’t ignore, and she felt her nipples tighten into painful little points as a breath shuddered through her. “Jaal, I can feel it again.”

His hand abandoned her neck to sweep down along her spine, stopping to delve under the shirt that had fallen back into place when she rose. His fingers slipped between her thighs, tested the silken skin there and gathering the waiting moisture on his skin. “Lay back, darling one. Let me take care of you.”

Despite her every instinct Sara obliged him, stepping back to settle properly on the bed, laying back and tossing aside her clothes as an afterthought to allow Jaal an uninterrupted look at her flushed form. If she kept her legs spread for him, kept herself on display, she felt she couldn’t be judged - how could she resist the way he looked at her, as if he were going to take her body apart piece by piece? As if she were the most delectable treat he had ever seen?

Jaal hefted himself onto the bed, kneeling between her thighs and watching as her hands thoughtlessly began wandering over her own skin, sweeping up across her stomach to squeeze her breasts and taunt her nipples with quick little flicks of her fingers. As she touched herself Jaal began undressing, first displacing his rofjiin and setting it aside and then removing the top layers of his clothing, leaving his torso bare and his lower half protected only by a form-fitting pair of black pants. She would have had to be blind to not notice the bulge that waited there for her, straining against the material of his pants, and her heart leapt up into her throat.

He was  _big_.

“I don’t know if you’re going to fit,” she blurted, gaze wide and enchanted as she tried to give shape to what she could only see the edges of. Her mouth watered despite her hesitation, a desperate ache tightening in her gut, and she felt a rush of fresh arousal soak the already sodden skin of her entrance. His nostrils flared and her brain paused for an instant before realizing -  _oh god he can smell me_.

“It is alright if I cannot,” Jaal said firmly, hand finding her stomach and gently brushing along the soft skin, up and then down to rest low against her mound, allowing his thumb to slip down and brush against her clit in a way that made her shiver. “This is about you, Sara. Not me.”

Sara shook her head in protest, reaching up to press her palm to his throat as she corrected him. “No. It’s about  _us_ , Jaal. I want you to feel just as good as you make me feel.”

Jaal dipped in to kiss her, slow and gentle before his lips glided down over her body to kiss and suck at her throat and collar, leaving dark marks in his wake in his determination to taste her fully. The hot press of his mouth against the sensitive swell of her breast had her gasping and clutching at his arms as her head fell back against the pillows. As before he took his time, mouthing every spare patch of skin across her chest with a determination that made her head spin deliriously, and even without the extra oomph of the heat she was facing she was certain Jaal alone would be enough to completely unmake her from the inside out.

His pebbled tongue slipped out to roll over her nipple and the texture sent a new wave of sensation through her veins, that fire returning with a vengeance and settling low in her stomach, heating her core until she physically ached with the need for relief. “Jaal, you fingers - please, Jaal, I want you to touch me,” she gasped, writhing up against him to try and trick his hand between her thighs.

“Patience, Ryder,” he rumbled, dragging his teeth across the swell of her breast before carefully taking her nipple between them and pulling. “You said that this was for us - and so I am going to take my time the way you deserve.”

His voice had this strange way of making her thoughts turn to static and drift away, and while her body still protested the slow, reverent treatment, her mind was too far gone and lost in the steady purr of his words to offer any sincere protest. She was putty under his touch as he slowly and carefully explored the edges of her form, warm hands smoothing along her waist and admiring the small tuck there before sweeping over her widening hips and down to grope at the plush skin of her thighs.

“I like this part of you, Ryder,” he murmured, pulling his mouth from her breast to speak before breathing a cool stream of air against the wet skin, making her shiver. He gripped her thigh harder, her skin giving way under the pressure of his fingers. “So soft - so malleable.”

“Not the first part men tend to look at,” she said, trying for levity and failing miserably as her head spun uselessly on her shoulders.

“Then they are fools,” he responded without hesitation, letting his hands reverently knead at the thick flesh as he dragged his tongue across her nipple and then moved to offer the same attention to her other breast. “Fools to not worship every part of you.”

“Jaal, if I weren’t already in love with you, I think that would have convinced me I should be,” Sara sighed, fingers trembling to try and offer some return - some sensation that he could find as pleasurable as what he offered hers. His body seemed to stiffen as her hands coasted down along his abdomen, a low purr resonating deep in his chest, and so Ryder relegated herself to diligently exploring every facet of his anatomy, learning that he liked when her fingers traced the thicker edges of his muscles - different from what she was used to, but easy enough to learn the nuances of.

By the time his hand abandoned her thighs to delve between them she was delirious, her body overheated and oversensitive to every subtle touch and brush of his body against hers. The thick press of his finger as it surged into her body was enough to make her whine, high and wanton, as her hips pressed down to push him deeper into her. Jaal did not protest this time and made no move to tease her - he let his finger sink into her and began pumping in and out, offering her the sweetest friction. When she came it was almost gentle, soft and slow as heat radiated through her body, but not enough. The high faded and she was panting so sweetly against the skin of his neck, but she refused to let him pull away even for an instant.

“Jaal, please - I need you inside of me,” she pleaded, curling around him and clinging to him desperately. “Please, Jaal - I want you to fuck me.”

“Patience, darling one,” he reminded her, voice deeper than she remembered it being (if that were even possible). “This is not something you want me to rush.”

She gave a little sob and rocked up to him, trying to encourage him to rush anyway, but Jaal was endlessly patient. His hand continued working between her thighs, gathering the copious amounts of arousal there and spreading it generously along her entrance. She was weak with pleasure, grinding helplessly into his hand as subtle shocks of pleasure continued to torment her senses, and as his thumb lifted to roll against her clit she was overwhelmed again as another climax rushed through her system.

“You are so soft, darling,” he purred, mouth brushing against her ear as he kissed and nibbled at her jaw and throat. “So wet for me. I had not considered that you could produce so much - or that I would like it.”

A small shudder rocked through her. “Jaal, your  _voice_ ,” she whined, eyes closing as she allowed herself to simply lay back and bask in the feel of his hands, the sound of his voice, the blessed smell of him that now consumed every part of her being. “Keep talking, please.”

He chuckled, low and amused, as his finger slowly withdrew. “I also did not think that you would be so  _needy_ ,” he said. “Even your body refuses to let me leave easily. So stubborn.”

Something thicker pressed at her entrance and her back tensed as she realized it was his fused fingers. Her lips parted as a deeper sound poured from her and he slowly coaxed the digits into the desperate clutch of her body, well-prepared but still new to the strange fit his fingers provided. “ _Jaal_ …” she sighed tremulously. She worked to relax herself, to ease the tension that gripped at the intrusion, and as his fingers sank in deep her body began to unwind again, returning to that pleasant weightlessness that he so easily invoked in her. She was pliant underneath him, panting and whining as he carefully fucked into her heat, and when the single finger shifted to sink in with the first she let out a keen that she didn’t doubt could be heard beyond her doorway.

“Jaal, please, please, please, you feel so good,” she cried, hips hunching to try and coax him deeper even as the stretch became near painful, as his fingers dragged along her g-spot relentlessly until her body fluttered around the intrusion and another gush of liquid coated his hand as she came with another shaking cry.

Tears stained her cheeks, her body overwhelmed and exhausted and still so relentlessly  _hot,_  and she felt his lips gently coast along her cheek to brush away the trails left behind. “You do not cry when you are shot or injured, or when you are sad,” Jaal observed, and her eyes fluttered open to finally meet his again. He was looking at her as if she were a goddess. “And yet when I make you come, you cry more than I have ever seen you.”

“You’re overwhelming,” she panted, unable to explain why any other way. “You overwhelm me.”

“Is this bad?” he asked, though the small glint in his eyes, playful and mischievous, told her he already knew the answer.

“Gods, no. I never want you to stop,” she breathed.

Cruelly, he pulled away from her, let his fingers slide free of her body no matter how desperately it clenched to keep him there. She gave a wordless little sob of protest, body arching to chase after him, but he wound his arm around her middle and twisted their position so that she sat astride him. “This way, Ryder,” he murmured, hands dropping to push at his pants and begin working them down his body. “I want to see you - and I want you to control this. I don’t want to hurt you, darling one.”

“You wont hurt me,” she said, and her voice was barely there underneath the heavy gasps she took to try and regain her sanity. Her body still felt like a limp noodle, useless and impossible to control, but she lifted her hips to help him shuck his pants entirely, palms flat on his belly to stabilize herself, and when she sat back down she could feel the thick flesh of his cock nestled just underneath her, laying flat against Jaal’s stomach.

Tentatively, she rolled her hips. Jaal was the one to groan this time, and a small, broken little moan fell from her lips as she gasped, “ _Oh_.”

“Please, darling one,” he murmured. “Dearest. Sara. Take me inside of you.”

Despite her nod of agreement her hips continued to rock, slowly dragging the wet heat of her cunt along the deliciously textured length of his cock, giving little gasps as the ridge underneath the head caught just so on her distended clit.

“Sara,” he chastised, though it hardly sounded like a complaint. “ _Please_.”

“I’m just,” -she shuddered and her eye rolled back as a small shockwave tormented her again - “I’m just making sure you’ll slide in, that’s it.”

“ _Sara_ ,” he repeated, voice firmer as his hips rolled up to hers.

Eventually her own need caught up to her, and she forced herself to raise and settle back further on his thighs, the width of his frame forcing her thighs to remain near-painfully spread to allow her this position at all. Her gaze fell and she took her first, detailed look at his waiting length where it waited against his belly, too heavy to keep itself up, and that tight little ball of anxiety spiraled out of control as she realized exactly what she had signed herself up for.

It was definitely a cock - that was without question. There was a thick head, perhaps barely smaller than her closed fist, and the subtle ridge that she had been enjoying so throughly that faded to his shaft. He was thickly built and longer than any human she had been with, but not quite as long as a turian. The length didn’t concern her, though - it was the girth. At his thickest she would need two hands to fully encircle him, and that didn’t include the thick, bulging knot that waited at the base of his dick, deep purple with thinner skin than the rest of his body.  _Sensitive,_  her mind provided, half drunk on sensation.

“Slowly,” she breathed, realizing that too hard and too fast would wind up hurting her. At least until she got a little more practice.

“Are you alright, Sara?” Jaal asked, watching her with that intense, concerned gaze that made her heart throb.

“We just have to go slow,” she repeated, reaching out to take his cock in hand and slowly admire the slick skin. It was wetter than she thought it should be, and she realized again,  _Oh. Self lubricating. That should help._

“You are smaller than angaran women,” Jaal cautioned her. His hand rested on her thigh, and he looked calm even as his breath quickened with each stroke of her hand. The edge of her palm brushed against his knot and his hips jolted up, a heavy curse leaving his lips, and her cunt spasmed approvingly. “ _Careful_ , Ryder. Unless you want this to end before it begins…”

The thought terrified her, and so she slid her hand up and away from the delicate space. She teased the ridge underneath his head with her thumb, watched as liquid beaded at the slit of his dick, and then shifted forward to let her hips hover over his. Her own body was getting too loud, too demanding and needy, and as much as she wanted to explore him she couldn’t ignore the pleasure between her thighs that had turned to an honest-to-god pain in its desire.

Slowly, she slotted the thick head against her entrance and shuddered at the stretch. It was not so bad as having all of his fingers fitted inside of her, but it was still significant. She swallowed down the excess drool that was making it hard to speak and lifted her gaze to meet Jaal’s. Their eyes connected and slowly - carefully - she began sinking down onto him.

The pain hit first, sharp and angry as his cock stretched her entrance, and she was already so sensitive from everything that it only became all the more pronounced. Her lib wobbled as a small little cry stuttered from her, but before Jaal could protest she sank down further and let his tip pop into her cunt, the ridge disappearing into her heat. Her pussy clamped down on the intrusion, caught somewhere between wanting to take him deeper and wanting to force him out, and the groan that Jaal gave her was strangled in his throat.

Forcing herself to relax again, Sara waited as her body fluttered and squeezed around the intruder, and when the pain faded to the back of her mind she sank down further, and then pulled up. Her hands flew forward to steady herself on his chest, her arms shaking with exertion as she kept herself upright. “Fuck,” she breathed, voice filled with awe as her eyes rolled back. “Fuck, Jaal, sweetheart - you feel so good.”

Tentatively rolling her hips back, she trembled as he sank into her again, the sweet friction and the blissful knowledge that he was finally  _inside of her_  nearly enough to send her over the edge in a frighteningly powerful way. She fucked herself onto him slowly, only taking in the tip of his cock and just a bit more, forcing her body to get used to the way his stretched her in a way she had never faced before. Jaal never complained for an instant - he groaned and huffed underneath her, gaze intent on watching as her breasts swayed with each rock of her body, the way his length disappeared into the velvety pink clutch of her cunt.

Eventually her body demanded more, and when she rolled back this time she sank down further, taking another inch into her body, and then another when the protest her walls gave only sent a small thrill down her spine. Jaal was wordless for a long moment, mouth open and gaping as he watched the way her small frame hungrily took him into her, and there was something dangerous in the starlike gleam of his eyes.

“I’m so full,” she marveled, shivering as he stretched her apart. Her hand lifted, quickly trying to brush away the drool that nearly escaped her.  _Gods, I’m a fucking mess_.

“You look so beautiful, sweetness,” Jaal spoke, finally summoning is voice again as his hands settled on her waist to move with her. There was tension in the lines of his body, restraint painted across his expression, and she knew that he wanted to be in her fully - to fuck into her with a wild abandoned that a deep and dark part of her craved, damn the consequences. But the subtle sting that never quite left even when pleasure overpowered it kept her from falling to that dangerous whim, kept her from giving in to mindless want.

His hand shifted, pressed low on her stomach to slide his thumb against her clit and rest there. Her body reacted immediately, clamping down around him as another violent quake rumbled through her, and she couldn’t keep herself upright as she sank another perilous inch down his cock. Her body fell forward onto his, chest flush against his as she buried her face to his throat.

Mindless pleasure stole away her thoughts, drove her hips back as she fucked herself onto him, taking as much of him as she could with each brush of their bodies until she was sinking down lower, and lower, and she could feel him stretching her to the very brink of what she could handle when her body settled down and she could finally feel the flushed and sensitive skin of his quickly-swelling knot pressed flush to her labia.

A sob stole through her as she realized that she had taken all of him - that she had fit him inside her despite every logical argument otherwise - and she quivered as she began to roll against him. His name fell from her lips in little, earnest sobs as pleasure tore through her system, leaving her raw and ravaged in its wake, and even asher pleasure mounted to a fervor pitch and unleashed a torrent of sensation in her he remained rooted deep inside of her, swollen and full.

“Fuck me, Jaal,” she gasped as her mind returned from the hazy pleasure. “Please, please - do it, fuck me. I can’t move, I can’t, but I want you to come inside of me - please, darling,  _please_.”

This time Jaal did not argue or hesitate. He rolled them over onto her back and sat up, hands bruising her hips as he gripped her and held her in place. He withdrew entirely, gaze devouring the way her body remained diligently spread for him, the way she instinctively clenched to find something to fill the void he had left, and a low growl pierced the air around them before he pressed forward and filled her in one fluid motion. The cry that fell from her lips was almost inhuman as a strange and lusty beast took possession of her vocal chords. She writhed under him, legs jerking to hook into his thighs as he began pounding into her, assured that her body could handle him, and she was still only half convinced that she could. She had never been so full before, so overwhelmed, and each time he bottomed out there was a surge of pain that made her tremble in a way that would embarrass her later.

As he buried himself to the hilt he ground against her, knot pushing perilously against her entrance and making her whimper and jerk back. There was no way his knot would fit -  _but what if it did?_

She sobbed, unable to string together any coherent sound, and Jaal kissed her as he took her, each drag of their bodies leaving her feeling raw and distended in the most beautiful way. Her hands fluttered against his skin, uncertain where to touch but just knowing she wanted to feel him, and her hand fell to press to the flat of her belly - and gods, but to her own awe she could feel him, could feel the way her body tensed, and the way he filled her with each heavy thrust.

Jaal thrust forward as a low, unsteady groan vibrated through his chest. Then she felt it - a small, barely perceptible thrust, and a sharp stretch as his knot began to slowly push past her entrance to fill her. “Jaal!” gasped, voice high and uncertain as a vaguely pleasant burn resonated through her. “Jaal, sweetheart, darling, be careful.”

But he was already pushing forward again and grinding deeper, and she let out a high whine as his knot slipped into her. Her eyes rolled back and this time she did nothing to stop the spit from staining her chin as her face turned to press into the pillow as she writhed. His thrusts were smaller, faster, measured to ensure his knot remained deep within her, and she could feel him swelling and tensing and her body had never been so tender-

He growled as her body clutched around him and a violent orgasm stole away any semblance of thought. As she squeezed around him his cock spasmed inside of her, and she felt the rush of his seed flooding her body, and that just made a deep and satisfied groan reverberate through her.

Jaal did not move or pull away as he panted against her throat, and she could feel him in her still, unchanged despite the fact that she could  _feel_  his bodies release resting in her. Then he kissed her pulse and she melted into the bed, tension slowly eeking out of her body as she curled close and wound her body around his.

He moved, a subtle shift, and with it came a painful tug that made her cry out in protest. Jaal’s hand jumped up to pet through her hair, a low hum resonating through his chest as he quickly apologized and soothed her in one simple motions. “I’m sorry, Ryder,” he apologized, voice sweet and gentle despite the fact that he sounded as wrecked as she felt. “It will only be a few minutes.”

Part of Sara had worried that before the few minutes passed she would find her body aching again, ignoring the heavy and overwhelming exhaustion that had settled into every part of her body, but time passed and the arousal did not return. Slowly, ever so slowly, the duo bean to disentangle themselves until Jaal could pull from her without fear of pain, and the groan that his loss pulled from her was one of exhaustion - not pleasure.

Her eyes forced themselves open as she watched him abandon the bed, cock already gone and nestled safely inside of his body once more, the delicate pink slit along his groin flushed and raw-looking. “Where are you going?” she managed, voice soft and half-asleep.

“I am going to get a towel to clean you up,” he responded, reaching to tuck her hair behind her ear. Her eyes closed as he kissed her forehead. “You are too exhausted to shower.”

“You could always wash me,” she murmured, lazily watching him as she summoned a small smile.

Jaal chuckled and took her hand, pressing a kiss to her palm. “Perhaps another time, Ryder. For now, you need to rest.”

She wound her fingers around his, keeping him from pulling back once more. “You’ll stay with me, right?” she asked softly.

When he looked at her, it was warm and kind, enough to make her heart throb in her chest in a strangely emotional way that she wasn’t used to. Heat settled in the back of her throat, and she realized with a start that this - this must be love.

“Always, Ryder,” he promised.


End file.
